Deciding Whether to File for Bankruptcy: Consumer Debt Advice from NCLC
by John Rao, National Consumer Law Center


Thirteenth in a series from NCLC to help families in financial difficulty. Click here for a list linking to all the articles in this series.

Federal law provides the right to file bankruptcy for people with debt problems.
[Note: Bankruptcy is as old as our Government -- Bankruptcy is in the Constitution.]

This article explains

-- how bankruptcy can help you and when it may be the wrong solution for you.

-- the difference between chapter 7 and 13 bankruptcies,

-- how you know the best time to file for bankruptcy, and

-- what a bankruptcy will cost.

Importantly, the article corrects common misconceptions about bankruptcy.

While you should consider other options first, do not wait until the last minute to think about bankruptcy.
Important rights may be lost by delay.

What Bankruptcy Can and Cannot Do

Bankruptcy may make it possible for you to:

• 
  
• • Eliminate your responsibility for many of your debts and get a fresh start. When a debt is discharged at the close of a successful bankruptcy, you have no further legal obligation to pay that debt.
  
• 
  
• • Stop foreclosure on your house or manufactured home and allow you an opportunity to catch up on missed payments.
  
• 
  
• • Prevent repossession of your car or other property, or force the creditor to return property even after it has been repossessed.
  
• 
  
• • Stop wage garnishment, debt collection harassment, and other similar collection activities to give you some breathing room.
  
• 
  
• • Prevent termination of utility service or restore service if it has already been terminated.
  
• 
  
• • Lower the monthly payments on some debts, including car loans.
  
• 
  
• • Allow you an opportunity to challenge the claims of creditors who seek to collect more than they are legally entitled.
  

Bankruptcy, however, cannot cure every financial problem, nor is it an appropriate step for every individual.

In bankruptcy, it is usually not possible to:

• 
  
• • Eliminate certain rights of “secured” creditors. A “secured” creditor has taken some form of lien on your property as collateral for a debt. Common examples are car loans and home mortgages. You can force secured creditors to take payments over time in the bankruptcy process, but you generally cannot keep the collateral unless you continue to pay the debt.
  
• 
  
• • Discharge certain types of special debts, such as child support, alimony, most student loans, court restitution orders, criminal fines, and some taxes.
  
• 
  
• • Protect all cosigners on their debts. When a relative or friend has cosigned a loan and you discharge the loan in bankruptcy, the cosigner may still have an obligation to repay all or part of the loan.
  
• 
  
• • Discharge debts that are incurred after bankruptcy has been filed.
  

Understanding the Difference Between a Chapter 7 and a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Your rights are very different depending on whether you file a chapter 7 or a chapter 13 bankruptcy.

In a chapter 7 bankruptcy (called a “liquidation”), you eliminate most of your debts, but may lose your property other than “exempt” property—that is property the law says creditors cannot reach unless they take that property as collateral. For many families most of their property is exempt. In a chapter 13 case (called a “reorganization”), you keep all your property, and pay a portion or all of your debts in installments over a period of three to five years.


How a Bankruptcy Can Help You

An Immediate Stop of Foreclosures, Evictions, Repossessions, Utility Shut-Offs, Garnishments, and Other Creditor Actions.

Your bankruptcy filing will automatically and immediately, without any further legal proceedings, stop most creditor actions against you and your property, at least temporarily.


Your request for bankruptcy protection creates an “automatic stay,” which stops the continuation of or the start of repossessions, garnishments, attachments, utility shut-offs, foreclosures, evictions, and debt collection harassment. The automatic stay provides you time to sort things out and address your financial problems. A creditor cannot take action against you or your property without bankruptcy court permission. Some creditors seek such permission immediately; others never seek permission.


Permission to continue collection activity is rarely granted to unsecured creditors. Secured creditors can get “relief from the stay” in a chapter 7 case to continue foreclosure or repossession of their collateral. But an automatic stay will almost always continue to be in effect to protect you in a chapter 13 bankruptcy case as long as you are making payments on the secured debt.


If the creditor takes action against you despite the automatic stay, the creditor may have to pay you damages and attorney fees and the creditor’s actions against you can be reversed. For example, a foreclosure sale which is held in violation of the automatic stay can be set aside.


Discharge of Most Debts.

When you successfully complete a bankruptcy, there is a “discharge” (that is, a cancellation) of many of your unsecured debts, such as medical bills and credit card obligations, which eliminates all debt collection and other actions concerning those debts. Certain debts may not be discharged, such as most taxes, liens associated with many secured debts, alimony, child support, and debts you incurred after the bankruptcy case was started. After bankruptcy, you will continue to owe those debts. Student loans can be discharged only if you can prove that repayment will be an undue hardship on you and your family.


Bankruptcy cannot prevent creditors from taking your home or car unless you make sufficient payments on your mortgage or car loan. The bankruptcy though prevents these creditors from seeking additional cash from you after they take the collateral. For example, if you do not pay a car loan, the creditor can seize and sell your car, but the bankruptcy prevents the creditor from seeking additional payment from you if the car’s sale price does not cover the full amount of the debt.


Protection Against Wage Garnishment, Bank Seizures, and Enforcement of Judgment Liens.

After you file bankruptcy, creditors are prohibited from garnishing your wages or other income or your bank account. Bankruptcy even stops government agencies from recovering Social Security or other public benefit overpayments, so long as your receipt of the overpayment was not based on fraud.


Bankruptcy also is an effective tool to deal with some types of court judgments against you. If a court judgment for money does not create a lien against your property, that judgment debt can be discharged in bankruptcy. If the judgment does create a lien on your property, you may ask the bankruptcy court to remove the lien if it affects “exempt property,” and then the creditor can never touch that property.


Protection of Your Household Goods from Seizure.

Most families’ household goods are exempt from seizure—you keep them even in bankruptcy. This is the case even when a creditor has taken household goods as security for a loan, as long as that loan was not used to purchase those goods. If those household goods were taken as security to purchase those goods (such as when you purchase furniture on credit and the store takes the furniture as collateral for the loan), then see the next paragraphs on “secured creditors” where your rights are explained.


Added Flexibility in Dealing with Auto Loans, Mortgages, and Other Secured Creditors.

Bankruptcy can help deal with creditors who take your property as collateral for their loans, such as car loans and mortgage loans. You still have to make payments on these loans if you want to keep the collateral. However, bankruptcy does provide added flexibility in dealing with these debts.


A chapter 7 bankruptcy lets you keep your car by paying the creditor the lesser of what you owe on the loan or the car’s value. If your car is worth $1,000, and the remaining amount on your car loan is $3,000, you can keep the car by paying the creditor only the $1,000. The $1,000 payment usually must be made in a lump sum before the chapter 7 bankruptcy ends (usually after three to five months). Some creditors instead let you pay that amount in installments over a number of months even after the bankruptcy ends, but that is up to the creditor.


A chapter 13 bankruptcy gives you greater flexibility to keep your property. For example, if you are six months delinquent on a mortgage, filing a chapter 13 bankruptcy stops a threatened foreclosure and allows you to gradually catch up on the back-payments, over as many as three to five years. In some cases a chapter 13 filing also allows you to make lower monthly payments by extending the repayment period or lowering the loan’s interest rate. But you have to keep making payments until the loan is paid off.


Utility Terminations.

A bankruptcy filing stops a threatened utility termination and restores terminated service, at least for twenty days. To keep utility service beyond twenty days after the bankruptcy filing, you provide a security deposit (usually equal to approximately twice the average monthly bill) and keep current on new utility charges, but you need not pay the past-due charges incurred before the bankruptcy was filed. Often you can take sixty days to pay the deposit and some utilities may not require a deposit.


Driver Licenses.

If your driver’s license was or will be taken away because you have not paid a court judgment, such as one arising from an automobile accident, bankruptcy normally can discharge the obligation to pay the court judgment, and you then have a right to regain or retain the driver’s license.


The Best Time to File for Bankruptcy

It is often stated that bankruptcy is a “last resort” for financially troubled consumers. This is not really true.

In some cases, legal rights can be lost by delaying a bankruptcy. Be especially careful to get early advice about bankruptcy if you are concerned about saving your home or your car or protecting your bank account or wages from seizure.


For example, bankruptcy may not help you after your home is sold at a foreclosure sale or money in your bank account is seized. Bankruptcy can stop an eviction proceeding, but you have fewer rights in bankruptcy after a court has ordered you to be evicted. Act quickly to consider your bankruptcy rights.


While not ideal, all is not lost if you wait to the last minute before a foreclosure, repossession, or garnishment. Bankruptcies in an emergency can be filed with little preparation by filing only a brief petition, a statement of your Social Security number, and a list containing the names and addresses of your creditors. Additional forms must be completed and filed shortly thereafter.


But you must still complete an approved budget and credit counseling briefing before filing your bankruptcy. The counseling usually takes less than an hour, and can be done over the phone or over the internet.


On the other hand, if you are not facing immediate loss of property, but in the future you will incur new debts that you will not be able to pay, a bankruptcy filing should be delayed until you incur those new debts. New debts incurred after the bankruptcy filing are not discharged in that bankruptcy case—you will still be obligated to repay those new debts. If you file too soon and incur a lot of debt after the filing, you may be back to where you started from or even worse.


If you file a first bankruptcy too soon, you will find it more difficult to file a second bankruptcy to discharge the new debts incurred after you file the first bankruptcy. After you first file a chapter 7 bankruptcy, you have to wait eight years to file another chapter 7 case. There is more flexibility to file a chapter 13 case after first filing a chapter 7 bankruptcy. Thus it is a good idea to wait to file for bankruptcy until your debts have peaked.


If you decide to wait to file bankruptcy, avoid the temptation to go on expensive vacations or credit card shopping sprees that you do not intend to repay. In a chapter 7 bankruptcy, debts incurred in this way can be declared non-dischargeable. On the other hand, pre-bankruptcy expenses for medical care and other essentials are rarely challenged. Similarly, it may make sense before filing bankruptcy to purchase in installments needed medical or automobile insurance.


The Cost of Filing Bankruptcy

Unfortunately, it is expensive to file bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is a legal proceeding with complicated rules and paperwork. You may want to get professional legal help, especially if you hope to use bankruptcy to prevent foreclosure or repossession. Most bankruptcy attorneys provide a free consultation to help you decide whether bankruptcy is the right choice. If the attorney takes the case, the attorney will expect to be paid, unless he or she works for a nonprofit legal services office or is doing the bankruptcy pro-bono.


You also have to pay the court a bankruptcy filing fee—$310 for chapter 13 or $335 for chapter 7. The fee can be paid in four installments over 120 days (or 180 days with court permission). You can also ask the court to waive the filing fee in a chapter 7 case if your household income is less than 150% of the official poverty guidelines (for 2018, $24,690 for a family of two or $37,650 for a family of four). No waiver is allowed in a chapter 13 case.


In a chapter 13 case, you pay your debts over time, and you usually have to pay the trustee handling your payments a 10% commission on each payment. While this can add up, you will be paying far lower interest on your debts in a chapter 13 plan than if you had not filed bankruptcy. Even more significantly in a chapter 13 plan, you may only have to repay a small percentage of what you owe on most of your unsecured debts.


Common Misconceptions About Bankruptcy

When You File Bankruptcy Typically You Will Lose Little or None of Your Property.

People are wrong who believe that a bankruptcy filing results in the loss of most of their property. Everyone who files bankruptcy gets to keep some of their possessions, and most people get to keep all of them.


No matter the type of bankruptcy you file, unless property is collateral for a loan, you get to keep all your property that is protected by “exemption” laws. Exemption laws typically protect clothes, appliances, furniture, jewelry, and often even your car and home.


An exemption law may state that you get to keep property that is worth less than a certain amount. What that property is worth is based not on how much the property cost, but rather on your “equity” in the property: the amount that the property is worth in its present condition minus how much you owe on a loan for that property.


For example, if an exemption law protects a $2,000 motor vehicle, this dollar amount applies to $2,000 of your equity in the car, not to the total value of the car. If your car has a total value of $7,000 today with a $5,000 car loan balance, you have $2,000 in equity in the car. In this scenario, you can fully protect a $7,000 car with the $2,000 exemption. You will still have to repay the $5,000 car loan in the bankruptcy or the auto lender will take the car, but you won’t lose the car to pay your other creditors.


What property and the amount of that property that is exempt varies widely from state to state and the application of exemptions in bankruptcy can be complex, particularly if you have moved within the last two years to a different state or bought a home within the last 40 months. You should discuss what property is exempt with a bankruptcy attorney, but the general rule of thumb is that, for most consumers filing bankruptcy, much of their property is exempt.


What property you keep also depends on the type of bankruptcy you choose—a chapter 7 or a chapter 13. In a chapter 7 case, you keep your exempt possessions, but other property may be sold, with the money distributed to pay your creditors. In a chapter 13 case, you keep all your property by paying their nonexempt value over time from future income under a plan approved by the bankruptcy court. If you have very valuable property, it might be sold in a chapter 7 bankruptcy, but you keep it if you pay its value to your creditors over a number of years in a chapter 13 plan.


The Effect of Bankruptcy on Your Credit Report.

The effect of a bankruptcy on your credit report is of understandable concern. Most often, you should not worry about bankruptcy making it harder for you to obtain credit. If you are delinquent on a number of debts, this already appears on your credit record. A bankruptcy is unlikely to make your credit rating any worse, but instead may make it easier for you to obtain future credit.


New creditors will see that old obligations have been discharged in the bankruptcy and that you have fewer other creditors competing with them for payment. Creditors also recognize that you cannot receive a second chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge for another eight years.


After bankruptcy, your credit file will also list the outstanding balance as zero dollars for each of your debts. The credit file will list the fact that you filed bankruptcy and that certain debts at one time were delinquent, but creditors are most interested in what you owe now on each debt. That your credit report shows that you owe nothing on a debt improves your credit standing.


After your bankruptcy is complete, check your credit report to make sure all the debts you discharged in bankruptcy are listed as now owing zero dollars. File a dispute with the credit bureaus if your discharged debts continue to be listed as having a balance owed.


Bankruptcy also often will enhance the stability of your employment and income. Wage garnishments, continuous collection calls, car repossessions, telephone disconnections, and other consequences of an unaffordable debt burden are eliminated, and this should help you find and hold steady employment. Steady income is key to creditworthiness.


Bankruptcy will make it more difficult for you to obtain a new conventional mortgage to purchase a home. Even then, most lenders will not hold the bankruptcy against you if you re-establish a good credit reputation for two to four years after your bankruptcy.


After bankruptcy, some new lenders may demand collateral as security, ask for a cosigner, or want to know why bankruptcy was filed. Other creditors, such as some local retailers, may not even check your credit report.


Bankruptcies stay on your credit record for ten years from the bankruptcy filing, while your debts are usually only reported for seven years from their delinquency. If delinquencies on your debts are five or six years old, bankruptcy will not help your credit record. The debts will be deleted from your credit report within a year or two, while the bankruptcy will stay on your record for ten years.


If you file bankruptcy, you usually do not need to go to court, unless something out of the ordinary occurs.

You will have to attend one meeting with the bankruptcy trustee (not with a judge). Creditors are invited to that meeting but rarely attend. In the rare case that you do receive a notice to go to court, it is important that you go and also check with your attorney if you have one. Before your case is closed, you must also take a course in personal finances, which will last for approximately two hours.


The Effect of Bankruptcy on Your Reputation in the Community.

Most people find their reputations do not suffer from filing bankruptcy. Bankruptcies are not generally announced publicly, although they are a matter of public record. It is unlikely that your friends and neighbors will know that you filed bankruptcy unless you tell them.


However, especially in a small town, where debts are owed to local people, reputational issues connected with filing bankruptcy may arise. In such a situation, weigh possible embarrassment and damage to reputation against bankruptcy’s potential advantages. If you believe that your reputation in a small town is a concern, you may choose to voluntarily pay selected debts after bankruptcy, but you cannot leave selected creditors out of the bankruptcy process entirely.


Feelings of Moral Obligation.

Most people want to pay their debts and make every effort to do so if payment is possible. If bankruptcy is the right solution to your financial problems, you should balance these feelings of obligation with the importance of protecting your family.


Bankruptcy is a legal right. A provision concerning bankruptcy is even contained in the United States Constitution. Big corporations like Kmart, American Airlines, Chrysler, and Macy’s, and famous people like Toni Braxton, Tammy Wynette, Larry King, Mickey Rooney, Henry Ford, and Walt Disney have all chosen to file bankruptcy.

The book of Deuteronomy states: At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release that which he has lent unto his neighbor and his brother; because the Lord’s release hath been proclaimed. (Deut. 15:1–2.)
Most importantly, during hard times, bankruptcy may be the only way to provide your family with food, clothing, and shelter. This book explores alternatives to bankruptcy, and these should be considered carefully. But it may be that bankruptcy is your best or only realistic alternative.


Potential Discrimination After Bankruptcy. The federal bankruptcy law offers you protection against being discriminated against because you have filed for bankruptcy. Government agencies, such as housing authorities and licensing departments, cannot deny you benefits because of a previous bankruptcy, including debts discharged in bankruptcy that were owed to those agencies. Government agencies and private entities involved in student loan programs also cannot discriminate against you based upon a bankruptcy filing.


Employers are not permitted to discriminate against you for filing bankruptcy. However, for some sensitive jobs which involve money or security, your bankruptcy may be considered evidence of financial problems which could be detrimental to your work. Bankruptcy law does not prevent discrimination by others, including private creditors, deciding whether to grant you any new loans.


When Bankruptcy May Be the Wrong Solution

There are at least seven situations in which bankruptcy may not be the right option for you:

1. 1) If all your assets and income are exempt, then you are “collection-proof.”
   (See a previous article in this series: Wage Garnishments and Bank Account Seizures for more information about what it means to be “collection-proof.”) In that case, most creditors can do virtually nothing to harm you even if you don’t filing bankruptcy. At which point, there may not be a compelling reason to file for bankruptcy. Waiting until you are no longer collection-proof is generally more prudent than filing right away, unless you are concerned with a home mortgage, car loan, or other secured loan.
   
2. 
   
3. 2) The debts at issue are secured by your property—such as home mortgages or car loans—and you do not have sufficient income to keep up payments while also catching up on past-due amounts. Bankruptcy may not help you when the long-term expense of keeping your home or car exceeds your long-term income.
   
4. 
   
5. 3) You have valuable assets that are not exempt in the bankruptcy process and you do not want to lose these assets. A chapter 13 filing may still help if you can afford the necessary payments.
   
6. 
   
7. 4) Your main reason for filing bankruptcy is to discharge a student loan, alimony or child support obligations, court restitution orders, criminal fines, or some taxes. These obligations are difficult if not impossible to discharge in bankruptcy.
   
8. 
   
9. 5) You have only a few debts and strong defenses for each. Instead of filing for bankruptcy, you can raise these defenses aggressively. Usually the disputes can be settled out of court in an acceptable way. If they are not settled, you can use bankruptcy later.
   
10. 
    
11. 6) Because of a prior bankruptcy, you cannot receive a discharge in a chapter 7 bankruptcy. However, in most cases, a chapter 13 petition can still be filed.
    
12. 
    
13. 7) You can afford to pay all of your current debts without hardship.
    

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Wage Garnishments and Bank Account Seizures:

Consumer Debt Advice from NCLC
Author --- Carolyn Carter


This article focuses on consumer rights and strategies to deal with your civil court judgment debt. Creditors and debt buyers bring millions of collection lawsuits which usually result in a court judgment for the creditor or debt buyer. A court judgment for the creditor triggers the creditor’s right to seize your wages, benefits, bank accounts, cars, and even your home. This article sets out consumer rights and strategies for responding to and limiting these creditor rights.As discussed below, once a debt becomes judgment debt, it can quickly lead to loss of wages, benefits, bank accounts, personal property, and even your home. In extreme cases, it can even result in your incarceration.

You have rights to limit these consequences, but to protect your property you must understand these rights and raise them aggressively when a creditor tries to take these steps.


Although you should have received notice of a lawsuit against you and notice of any ruling from the court that you owe a debt, surprisingly often consumers never know that a judgment was entered against them. The first they learn about the court ruling is when their wages are garnished, their bank accounts frozen, or their property seized. Always pay close attention to any legal documents sent to you so that you can head off the worst.


On the other hand, a creditor cannot seize your wages, bank account, or property unless and until it brings a law suit and a court enters a judgment against you. There are two exceptions to this:

1.  * Secured creditors, such as your auto or mortgage lender, can seize their collateral if you get behind on your payments to them.
2. * The government can garnish your wages and seize tax refunds to repay student loans or other debt owed to the government.

But for credit card, medical, and other unsecured debt owed to private creditors, your wages, bank account and property are not at risk until a court issues a judgment against you.


Even if a court does enter judgment against you, there are still legal limits on how much or if any of your wages, government benefits, and money in your bank account can be seized and limits on whether property can be sold to pay off your debts. For many people, these limits mean that there is nothing that a creditor or court can do to make you pay a court judgment. This is called being “judgment proof” or “collection proof.”


To be collection proof, your income must be low enough that it is fully protected from garnishment, that all of the money in your bank account (if you have one) consists of government benefits or is otherwise protected from seizure, and that your personal property and home are all exempt from seizure. In that case, you do not have to worry about the judgment debt until your financial situation substantially improves. When your financial situation does improve, however, the creditor may be able to collect on its debt at that point.


If you are not collection proof, then you must pay careful attention to the implications of a court judgment against you. This article outlines how to protect your wages and property from seizure to pay your court judgment debt and other steps you should take when your wages and property are at risk.


Garnishment of Your Wages

When there is a court judgment against you, the creditor has the right to “garnish” your wages. This means that the creditor can get a court order requiring your employer to deduct a portion of your wages from your paycheck and send it to the court to be applied to the judgment debt. With the exception of a student loan debt or a debt owed the government, garnishment can take place only after the creditor obtains a court judgment against you.


After obtaining a court judgment, the creditor must file a request for garnishment with the court clerk, sheriff, or another local official depending on state practice. A notice is then issued to the “garnishee” (your employer), directing it to turn over a portion of your paycheck at a specified time. You must be given notice of the garnishment and you can request a hearing to prove that state or federal law protects your money from garnishment. In some states, you have the right to ask the court to reduce the amount of the garnishment because of hardship or because you have recently received public assistance.


A portion of your wages is protected from seizure. Federal law protects most of your wages from garnishment, and, if your wages are very low, your paycheck is entirely protected. “Wages” that are protected include commissions, vacation pay, sick pay, disability benefit payments, and pension and retirement payments. The first $217.50 from weekly take-home pay, after taxes and Social Security are deducted, cannot be garnished at all. This amount will go up if the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour goes up.


If your take-home pay is between $217.50 and $290 a week, then only the amount over $217.50 can be garnished. If your take-home pay is more than $290 a week, then 25% of your wages can be garnished. For example, if your weekly take-home pay is $250, then $32.50 a week ($250 minus $217.50) can be garnished. If your take-home pay is $600 a week, $150 a week (25% of your pay) can be garnished. A higher amount can be garnished if the debt is for child support or alimony. If your wages are garnished, your employer will be given instructions about how to make these calculations. You do not have to do anything to trigger the protected amounts, but you may want to double-check your employer’s calculations.


Importantly, this is the federal limit on garnishment.

State law may limit garnishment even more or even prohibit wage garnishment. However,

Neither the federal nor state limits on wage garnishment may apply once your paycheck has been deposited into your bank account.


Federal law also protects you from being fired because you are being garnished for a debt. This protection does not apply, however, if your wages are being garnished for more than one debt.


If you are an independent contractor. Some workers are classified by their employers as independent contractors. (Your employer is probably treating you as an independent contractor if it is not deducting your Social Security contribution from your pay check.) Most courts rule that federal limits on wage garnishment do not apply to payments you receive as an independent contractor.


In theory, a creditor could get an order seizing all of the payments to you as an independent contractor to repay a judgment debt. However, this will be complicated for the creditor and many creditors won’t even try to do so. In addition, some states protect independent contractor payments the same as wages.



Government Benefits Completely Protected from Garnishment
Many types of federal and state benefits are completely protected from garnishment. Examples are Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and veteran’s benefits (except to pay certain child support obligations). These benefits are protected no matter how much you receive. States also usually exempt TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and unemployment compensation benefits from garnishment as well. But once you put these benefits into your bank account, different rules apply.



Freezes and Seizures of Your Bank Account

A creditor can get a court order seizing money from any of your bank accounts to repay a judgment debt. Certain federal benefits, such as Social Security, SSI, and VA benefits, that are deposited in your bank account are protected (with exceptions for child support and debts owed to the federal government).


Federal law requires your bank to protect certain benefits that are direct-deposited into your account within the last two
months. The bank is prohibited from turning over any Social Security, SSI, or VA benefits deposited within the last two months. The bank must send you a notice telling you what it is doing, but you do not have to take any steps to protect these benefits.


Social Security, SSI, or VA benefits deposited into the account more than two months beforehand are also protected—but the protection is not automatic. You will usually have to fill out papers and possibly go to court if you need to protect more than the last two months of benefits.


An easy way to protect all your Social Security, SSI, or VA benefits is to have them loaded onto a Direct Express prepaid card, instead of sent to a bank account. Those funds will then be automatically protected, no matter when they were received. You can sign up for the Direct Express card by calling 1-800-333-1795 or by visiting www.USDirectExpress.com.


As discussed below, other protections for your bank accounts require you to fill out papers and possibly go to court. For example, states usually protect workers compensation, unemployment compensation, and state employee retirement benefits from seizure, and some even allow you to protect wages deposited into your bank account. Some states have laws that protect a set amount in a bank account, such as $200 or $1,000, regardless of the source of the funds.


When a creditor obtains an order to seize your bank account, the bank typically will freeze the funds in your account, giving you a short period of time to claim that the funds are protected from seizure. The burden is on you to show that the funds are protected.


Usually you will find out that your funds have been frozen when you try to withdraw money, write a check, or use your debit card. Social Security, SSI, or veterans benefits directly deposited into your account during the last two months cannot be frozen. But other benefits can be frozen, and you must act quickly to show that at least some of the frozen funds are protected by law and should be unfrozen.


If some of your money on deposit is protected from seizure but some isn’t, it may be helpful to set up two accounts, one of which receives just protected funds. That way, it’s easier to prove that all the money in that account is protected. Spend the money in the unprotected account first.


Protecting Your Car and Personal Possessions from Seizure

In theory, after a creditor gets a court judgment, it can ask a sheriff to seize your car, household goods, or other personal property and then creditor would sell the property to repay the debt, often called “judgment execution.” In practice, most states limit this kind of seizure so much that a creditor has no financial incentive to have this property seized and sold. You have more to fear from wage garnishment or seizure of your bank account than from loss of personal property.


In many states, exemption laws protect your car and other personal property from seizure to pay a court judgment. (Exemption laws do not apply to secured creditors. For example, an auto lender can repossess your car if you do not keep up on your car payments.)


Exemptions laws vary considerably by state. Some laws specify that a specific dollar amount of all your personal property is exempt from seizure, such as $8,000. You can choose which items of your personal property you want to keep, as long as what you keep has a value of $8,000 or less. Others specifically exempt an item of personal property, such as a car, if its value is under a certain amount.


The value of your car or personal property typically is not determined based on what the property is worth, but how much “equity” you have in the property. Your equity is how much the property is worth now minus any amount you still owe on a loan that takes that property as collateral. For example, if your car is worth $10,000, but you owe $7,000 on your car loan, your equity in the car is only $3,000. A $3,000 property exemption would fully protect your $10,000 car from seizure to repay a judgment debt. Remember, however, that if you do not keep up on your payments for the $7,000 car loan, the auto lender can still repossess the car.


States may list certain types of personal property that are totally exempt from seizure, no matter how much money they are worth, such as tools and supplies required for your occupation, clothing, a bible, and certain household goods.


Some creditors or their attorneys or collection agents may try to force you to turn over property that by law is exempt from seizure, pointing to small print in the contract that says you agreed to waive rights under state exemption laws. Do not give in—these contract provisions are illegal and unenforceable.


If the creditor asks a sheriff to seize personal property that is exempt, file a notice of exempt property or take similar steps specified by your state law. In many states, you will need to file papers with the sheriff or a public official by a certain deadline in order to get the benefit of an exemption. The sheriff also cannot seize property in your possession which does not belong to you. To stop its seizure, the property’s rightful owner may have to file a declaration of ownership with the appropriate office.


If the sheriff is able to properly seize your property, it will then be sold at public auction, and the part of the proceeds that are not exempt will go to the creditor to help pay off the judgment. These auctions are usually poorly attended and bring low bids. For this reason, creditors rarely seize used household goods, which will have minimal resale value. If property is sold at auction, you or your friends can attend the auction and re-purchase the possessions at a bargain price. After a sale, if the sale proceeds are not enough to pay the judgment in full, the creditor may keep trying to collect the remainder.


Court judgments remain on the books for many years. Even if a creditor does not try to seize and sell your property after obtaining a judgment, it still may try to do so years later.


Because state exemption laws are complex, you may want to get professional help to understand which items of your personal property are subject to seizure. Look also for a guide to exemption laws for your state, which may be available from the local bar association, a legal services office, or a nonprofit consumer credit counseling agency. Make sure the guide is up-to-date.


Protecting Your Home from Seizure

Your home is at risk of foreclosure if you do not keep up on mortgage payments. Your home is also at risk of being sold if you owe a judgment debt, but that risk is much smaller. When a creditor obtains a court judgment on a debt, even just credit card or medical debt, the creditor can then put a lien on your home for the amount of the debt. With a lien in place, the creditor can then force a sale of your home or the creditor can simply hold onto its lien and wait for you to sell the home before trying to collect on the lien.


In some states, if husband and wife own a home jointly, the home cannot be seized to pay the debts that only one spouse owes. On the other hand, if both spouses are obligated on the debt, the judgment creditor can force a sale.


Most states have a homestead exemption that protects your home from being sold to pay a judgment debt as long as your equity in the home is less than a certain amount. While some states protect $100,000 or more, many states protect less. And few states completely prohibit a creditor from forcing the sale of your home to pay a judgment debt, no matter how much the home is worth.


A homestead exemption can protect your home from seizure based on a judgment debt. However, a homestead exemption does not protect you if you are in default on a first or second mortgage, on a home equity line of credit, or on any other debt if your home is collateral for that debt. In addition, in some states, to benefit from a homestead exemption, you must file a declaration of homestead with your registry of deeds office. In a few states, the declaration must be filed before the credit is granted. If you live in a state where a declaration is required, you should always file it as early as possible. In other states, the protection is automatic.


The homestead exemption is a powerful protection. The exemption’s dollar amount applies not to your home’s value, but instead to the equity in your home—home equity is your home’s present value minus the amount you owe on your first and second mortgages as well as any home equity lines of credit or other loans if your home is collateral for the loan.

• Example:
• Mr. J lives in a state with a homestead exemption of $75,000.


• His home is worth $200,000.
• He has $100,000 in principal still due on his first mortgage.
• And Mr. J has $25,000 owed on a home equity loan.
• The total secured debt on his property = $125,000.

In this case Mr. J’s equity in his home is $200,000 - $125,000 = $75,000.


Since the homestead exemption is $75,000, his home is fully protected. A creditor cannot force the home to be sold to pay a judgment debt.


If Mr. J’s home increases in value to $220,000, and if the total secured debt on his property stays the same, then his equity increases to $220,000 - $125,000 = $95,000. The homestead exemption of $75,000 no longer protects all of Mr. J’s equity. The creditor can force a sale.


The first $100,000 from the sale goes to pay off the first mortgage holder. The next $25,000 pays off the home equity loan. Mr. J. keeps $75,000, the amount of the homestead exemption. After these deductions from the sale price, the judgment creditor gets whatever is left up to the amount of the debt. If there are still any sale proceeds left over, those go to Mr. J.


Even though the home is worth $220,000, the creditor under such facts will probably not try to sell the home to satisfy its lien. If the forced sale of the home only brings in $210,000 and selling expenses are $10,000, then there will be nothing left for the judgment creditor. The judgment creditor instead may wait until Mr. J sells the property, since the judgment creditor’s lien stays on the home for many years. When Mr. J sells his home, anything Mr. J clears over $75,000 (after paying off the first mortgage and home equity line of credit) goes to pay off the judgment creditor’s lien, up to the amount of the debt.


One possible way of getting rid of judgment liens is to file for bankruptcy. To the extent the property is exempt when you file for bankruptcy, the lien can be permanently removed.


The Debtor’s Examination and Debtor’s Prisons

There are no debtor’s prisons in the United States, but you can still be imprisoned if you do not show up for a debtor’s examination. After obtaining a court judgment, a creditor can ask a judge to order you to appear in court or in the office of the creditor’s attorney to answer questions about your income and assets to help the creditor find income or property that the creditor may seize. In some states this procedure is called a debtor’s examination, but the procedure goes by other names in other states. Some creditors routinely request a debtor’s examination. Others never do.


A debtor’s examination is a court-ordered appearance. Failure to show up can result in arrest, citation for contempt, and a jail sentence. A notice to appear for a court examination should never be ignored. Always appear or ask the court in writing for a postponement. Courts usually grant a postponement if the creditor agrees to the request or if you have a good reason.


In responding to a notice of a debtor’s examination, review your assets well before the examination. Determine if all your property is protected by law and if all your income is exempt from garnishment. If so, immediately tell the creditor’s attorney listed on the notice. This may be sufficient to get the creditor to drop the request for an examination since it will just be a waste of everyone’s time. But make sure to get this in writing—do not rely on an oral promise that the examination will be dropped.


If there is an examination, be careful how you answer questions since your answers are made under oath and often are recorded by a court reporter. Lying under oath is perjury, which is a crime punishable by jail. On the other hand, do not volunteer information until you are asked for it. If the examination reveals that you have assets or income not protected by law, the creditor can obtain court orders allowing it to seize those assets or income.


In some states, judges also have the authority to order debtors to make payments on the judgment debt. If you do not pay, the judge can hold you in contempt of court and put you in jail. But even in these states, you must be given an opportunity to prove that you do not have the financial ability to make the payments.


Exemption Planning

If you have property that can be seized to pay a judgment debt, consider “exemption planning” that maximizes the protection of your state’s exemption laws by converting property that can be seized (for example, cash) into property that cannot be seized (for example, household goods or your home).


For example, Mrs. Q has $10,000 in equity in her home and $10,000 in a bank account. Her state has a $20,000 homestead exemption and lets her exempt $3,000 in cash. Her home is thus completely exempt from seizure by a judgment creditor, but $7,000 in her bank account is at risk of seizure.


Instead of losing $7,000 to the creditor, Mrs. Q can prepay the mortgage by $7,000. Her equity in the home increases from $10,000 to $17,000, but her home is still protected by the $20,000 homestead exemption. Her remaining $3,000 in cash is fully protected by the state’s $3,000 cash exemption.


Courts often—but not always—rule that exemption planning is valid. Exemption planning is different than an improper transfer of property where you try to give away property to a friend or relative or sell it for a less than it is worth to someone who will later return it. Creditors can have these bogus transfers cancelled as “fraudulent transfers” or “fraudulent conveyances.”


Workout Agreements to Protect Wages and Property

If your wages, bank account, personal property, or home is at risk from judgment debt, you can approach the creditor or whomever is collecting the debt about a “workout” agreement, even after a court judgment is entered against you. Offer to pay all or a portion of the amount due, over a period of months or even years. The amount you offer to pay should be directly related to what the collector can seize. Do not offer to pay $3,000 over twelve months when the only items the creditor could seize have a market value of $500.


Always get a workout agreement in writing. The written agreement should excuse you from attending any debtor’s examination that has been scheduled and should contain a promise not to use wage garnishment or seizure of your property as long as you continue to make payments. Also ask for an agreement to waive the remainder of the debt if part is paid. Some creditors accept partial payment if they know they can’t get payment in full. For the creditor, some payment is better than none.


Bankruptcy Is the Most Powerful Way to Protect Wages and Property

The most powerful way to prevent loss of wages or property from a judgment debt is to file for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy will immediately stop any seizure and may allow you to keep your property permanently.